JP2024066542A - Farming support program - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To realize accurate understanding of the growth condition. [Solution] A screen 100 is configured by a variety 101, a farm field name 102, a vegetation index (NDVI) 103, a vegetation image (NDVI image) 104, a spread width 105, and a pseudo image 106. The spread width 105 shows the spread width of the plant, and corresponds to the vegetation index. The pseudo image 106 shows a pseudo state of the vegetation, and corresponds to the vegetation index. [Selected Figure] Figure 3

Description

This invention is related to agricultural support programs.

What has been required in agriculture for a long time is the automation of agricultural management support. In Japan, the number of people working in agriculture is gradually decreasing, so the automation of agricultural management support is urgently needed. For this reason, various information processing devices have been developed. Specifically, they are as follows:

Patent Document 1 discloses an agricultural work support system. This system performs image recognition and output. In other words, the growth state of crop varieties is recognized by using wavelength components of satellite image data. Furthermore, the growth state is used to output the work content for each managed field.

Patent Document 2 discloses a vegetation index calculation device. This device calculates:
It is a vegetation index for agricultural crops, and an aerial image is used for this purpose. The aerial image contains an image of the agricultural crops.

Patent Document 3 discloses a fertilizer applicator control system. This system controls the position of the fertilizer applicator, and uses drone camera images for this purpose. In other words, the camera images are used to determine whether the crops are growing well or not. This growth status is used to infer the location of poorly grown crops. This location is used to identify the location of the fertilizer applicator.

Patent No. 4873545 Patent No. 6631747 International Publication WO2019/064455

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to realize accurate understanding of the growth condition. In other words, it is difficult to understand the growth condition by only displaying the vegetation index (NDVI) or the vegetation index image (heat map).

<First viewpoint> In order to accurately grasp the growth status, the processing device executes an output process according to the farming support program. By this process, what is output by the output device is the plant spread width. The condition for outputting the spread width is that a vegetation index or a vegetation image is output. From another viewpoint, what is used when outputting the spread width is the vegetation index.

<Second viewpoint> In order to intuitively grasp the growth status, the processing device executes an output process according to the farming support program. Through this process, a pseudo image of the plant is output by the output device. The condition for outputting the pseudo image is that a vegetation index or a vegetation image is output. From another viewpoint, it is the vegetation index that is used when the pseudo image is output.

<Third Viewpoint> In order to accurately grasp the growth status, the processing device executes an output process according to the farm management support program. The output device outputs a corrected vegetation index through this process. The number of days since planting is used when outputting the corrected vegetation index.

This invention makes it possible to accurately grasp the growth conditions.

1 shows the configuration of one embodiment of an agricultural management support system. 2 is an example of a hardware configuration. 1 is an example of a screen specification. 1A and 1B are examples of pseudo images, each of which shows a vegetation index of 0.85 or more, and each of which shows a vegetation index of 0.20 or less. This is the context of agricultural support. This is the data flow for agricultural support. This is the data flow for vegetation calculation. 1 is an example of the relationship between the corrected vegetation index and the spread width.

<Agricultural management support system> An agricultural management support system is a combination of multiple devices whose purpose is agricultural support. Figure 1 shows the configuration of one embodiment of the agricultural management support system. The agricultural management support system 1 electronically realizes all or part of the agricultural support. The agricultural management support system 1 is made up of a photographing device 10, a management device 20, and a user device 30. These devices are connected by communication lines. This embodiment employs a client-server type system, but stand-alone types of systems are not excluded by this invention.

<Photographing device> The photographing device 10 is used for photographing. The photographing device 10 is mounted on an artificial satellite 10a, an air vehicle (e.g., a helicopter or a drone) 10b, or a farm field monitoring facility 13c. The photographing device 10 photographs a farm field from an overhead perspective, and outputs a farm field image. The person who operates the photographing device 10 is a photographer (e.g., a satellite operator, etc.). The photographer may also serve as an administrator and a user, which will be described later.

<Management device> The management device is an information processing device operated by a manager (for example, an agricultural service provider, etc.) An example of the management device is a server terminal, etc.

2 shows an example of a hardware configuration. The management device 20 is made up of basic elements of a computer, specifically, an input device 21, an output device 22, a communication device 23,
These devices are a main memory device 24, an auxiliary memory device 25, and a processing device 26. These devices are connected via a system bus.

<User device> A user device is an information processing device operated by a user (
For example, the user device 30 is an employee of an agricultural corporation, an individual farmer, etc. Examples of the user device 30 include a smartphone and a tablet terminal. The user device 30 is made up of basic elements of a computer.

<Input Device> The input device 21 is used for input. The input device 21 is a general-purpose device.
Examples include keyboards, pointing devices, code readers, IC readers, and OCRs.
The input device 12 receives input of various data.

<Output device> The output device 22 is used for output. Output includes display, projection,
The output device 22 is a general-purpose device, examples of which include a display monitor, a printer, a projector, etc. The output device 22 outputs various types of data.

<Communication Device> The use of the communication device 23 is communication. The communication includes public line communication and dedicated line communication. The communication device 23 is a general-purpose device, and examples thereof include Wi-Fi (
(registered trademark) modem, Bluetooth (registered trademark) modem, etc.
Various data are exchanged at 3.

<Main Memory> Various data are temporarily stored in the main memory 24. An example of the main memory 24 is a RAM. Examples of the various data include computer-readable programs (hereinafter referred to as "programs"), operation tables, databases,
Input/output values, etc.

<Auxiliary Storage Device> Various data are permanently stored in the auxiliary storage device 25. Examples of the auxiliary storage device 25 include a ROM, an SSD, and an HDD. Examples of the various data include a computer program, a lookup table, a database, an input/output value, and the like.

<Processing Device> The processing device 26 is used for control and calculation. The processing device 26 is realized by an MPU, a CPU, etc. The processing device 26 reads out computer programs, and executes various processes.

<Farming support program> The farming support program is permanently stored in the auxiliary storage device 25. The farming support program is read out from the main storage device 24. The read farming support program is executed by the processing device 26, which realizes the following processing.

<Screen Specifications> Figure 3 shows an example of screen specifications. Screen 100 is output when:
This is after the farm management support program is executed. The screen 100 is composed of the variety 101, the field name 102, and the like.
02, vegetation index (NDVI) 103, vegetation image (NDVI image) 104, opening width 105,
and a pseudo image 106.

The variety name 101 indicates the variety name of the selected plant. The user device 30 is used to select the variety name. The main memory 24 temporarily stores the selected variety name.
The candidates for the variety name are permanently stored in the auxiliary storage device 25. Tomato is used in this embodiment, but plants other than tomato are not excluded by the present invention.

The field name 102 indicates the selected field name. The means for selecting the field name is the user device 30. The selected field name is temporarily stored in the main storage device 24. Candidates for the field name are permanently stored in the auxiliary storage device 25.

The vegetation index 103 indicates the vegetation index of the selected field. Here, the vegetation index is an index that indicates the vegetation condition. Examples of the vegetation condition include the amount of plants (vegetation distribution) and vitality (activity). The normalized difference vegetation index (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is used in this embodiment.
The NDVI can take a value range from −1.0 to +1.0 (−1.0≦NDVI≦1.0). The main memory 24 temporarily stores the vegetation index.

The vegetation image 104 shows a visualized vegetation index. The vegetation image 104 is composed of a field image 104a, a heat map 104b, a zoom-in button 104c, and a zoom-out button 104d.
, and a pointer 104e. The farm field image 104a is a visible image, the source of which is
The image capturing device 10 is a camera. The heat map 104b is a color or a shade thereof, and what is reflected therein is a vegetation index. When the enlargement button 104c is operated, the farm field image 104a and the heat map 104b are enlarged. When the reduction button 104d is operated, the farm field image 104a and the heat map 104b are reduced. When the pointer 104e is operated, a position in the farm field is specified. That is, when the pointer 104e is operated, the vegetation index 103, the spread width 1
05, and the pseudo image 106 change. This allows the growth status of the plants to be understood for each position in the field.

By outputting the spread width 105, the growth status of the plant can be accurately understood. The spread width 105 indicates the spread width of the plant, and corresponds to the vegetation index. The higher the vegetation index, the larger the spread width of the plant. The lower the vegetation index, the smaller the spread width of the plant.

By outputting the pseudo image 106, the growing condition of the plant can be intuitively grasped.
The simulated image 106 shows a simulated growing state of a plant, and the corresponding
The vegetation index is a vegetation index. FIG. 4 shows an example of a pseudo image. FIG. 4(a) shows a pseudo image with a vegetation index of 0.85 or more. The pseudo image shows lush plants. FIG. 4(b) shows a pseudo image with a vegetation index of 0.20 or less. The pseudo image shows plants immediately after planting. This embodiment employs photography. That is, plants are photographed in advance to prepare the pseudo image. Plants are photographed for each vegetation index (or the number of days elapsed since the planting date; hereinafter, referred to as "number of days since planting"). Methods other than photography (for example, sketches, illustrations,
(e.g. schematic diagrams, reproduced images, etc.).

<Agricultural Management Support Context> Fig. 5 shows the agricultural management support context. When a farm field image, a date (real time), a planting date, and a variety are input, agricultural management support is output.
The source of the field image is the photographer. The source of the date, planting date, and variety is the user. The destination of the farming support is the user or the manager. The farming support includes the vegetation index, vegetation image, spread width, and pseudo image.

<Data flow of farming support> The data flow of farming support is shown in Figure 6. The farming support is roughly composed of three processes, specifically, vegetation calculation P1, spreading width calculation P2, and pseudo image calculation P3.

<Vegetation Calculation P1> The vegetation calculation P1 calculates a vegetation index and a vegetation image. In other words, the vegetation index and the vegetation image are obtained by using the field image. Figure 7 shows the data flow of the vegetation calculation. The vegetation calculation P1 is roughly composed of an index calculation P1.1, a correction calculation P1.2, and a vegetation image calculation P1.3. These calculations are explained below.
As follows:

<Index Calculation P1.1> A pre-correction vegetation index is calculated. That is, a pre-correction vegetation index is obtained by using a farm field image. The pre-correction vegetation index is temporarily stored in the main memory device 24. This calculation is well known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-357380, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-314215, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-143490, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-
(e.g., JP 2012-196167 A, JP 2015-188333 A, JP 2017-169511 A, etc.).

<Correction calculation P1.2> By calculating the corrected vegetation index, the following can be accurately understood:
The corrected vegetation index is calculated by using the uncorrected vegetation index, the date, and the planting date. If no correction is made, the uncorrected vegetation index is equal to the corrected vegetation index. The corrected vegetation index is temporarily stored in the main memory 24.
This eliminates the influence of weeds. Equation 1 shows the corrected vegetation index ND
The relationship between VI_a, the uncorrected vegetation index NDVI_o, and the correction constant c (0<c<0.40). The correction constant c is set arbitrarily, and the only thing to take into account is the spacing between adjacent ridges (hereinafter,
"Furrow spacing.") and at least one of the properties of the soil.

The condition for executing the correction calculation P1.2 is that the difference between the pre-correction vegetation index NDVI_o and the reference vegetation index NDVI_s is greater than a predetermined value d (d>0.20). Equation 2 shows the relationship between the pre-correction vegetation index NDVI_o, the reference vegetation index NDVI_s, and the predetermined value d. The reference vegetation index NDVI_s is prepared for each number of days since planting. To obtain the number of days since planting, the planting date is subtracted from the date (actual time). When determining the predetermined value d, at least one of the presence or absence of weeds, the size of the weeds, the spacing between the rows, and the properties of the soil is taken into consideration.

<Vegetation image calculation P1.3> A vegetation image calculation is performed. That is, a vegetation image is calculated by using the corrected vegetation index. The vegetation image is temporarily stored in the main memory device 24. This calculation is well known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-357380, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-314215, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-143490, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 201
JP-A-0-68719, JP-A-2012-196167, JP-A-2015-18833
(Patent Publication No. 3, Patent Publication No. 2017-169511, etc.).

<Spread width calculation P2> The spread width of the plant is calculated. That is, the spread width is calculated by using the corrected vegetation index and the species. The spread width is temporarily stored in the following.
The main memory device 24. The spread width table is used in this calculation. The spread width table defines the relationship between the corrected vegetation index and the spread width. The spread width table is prepared for each type of plant. This table is permanently stored in the auxiliary memory device 25. The main memory device 24 is where the stored spread width table is read out.
Fig. 8 shows an example of the relationship between the corrected vegetation index and the opening width. The corrected vegetation index and the opening width are correlated. In other words, if the corrected vegetation index is large, the opening width is also large, and if the corrected vegetation index is small, the opening width is also small. Although the corrected vegetation index is adopted in this embodiment, the present invention does not exclude the adoption of the pre-corrected vegetation index.

<Pseudo image calculation P3> A pseudo image is calculated. That is, a pseudo image is calculated by using the corrected vegetation index and the species. The pseudo image is temporarily stored in the following way:
The main memory device 24. A pseudo image table is used in this calculation. The pseudo image table defines the relationship between the corrected vegetation index and the pseudo image. This table is prepared for each variety. This table is permanently stored in the auxiliary memory device 25. The stored table is read out from the main memory device 24. Although the corrected vegetation index is adopted in this embodiment, the present invention does not exclude the adoption of the pre-corrected vegetation index.

The field in which this invention is useful is agriculture.

26 Processing equipment 101 Variety 103 Vegetation index (NDVI)
104 Vegetation image (NDVI image)
105 Opening width 106 Pseudo image

Claims (2)

The agricultural support program includes the following steps:
Output: What is output is the spread width of the plants, and the output condition is that a vegetation index or a vegetation image is output. The agricultural support program includes the following steps:
Output: The output is the plant spread width, and the vegetation index is used for this.

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